Return To Me
by Ilovespike1
Summary: My turn to do a story about what happens after season 6 with spike's soul. Takes place six years after the Season 6 Finale. Dawn is at college on the east coast.
1. Dawn

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Jos and Mutant Enemy own everything.  
Spoilers: Up through the end of Season 6 on Buffy.   
Rating: PG for now  
Feedback: Please, Pretty Please, with sugar on top?  
  
Author's Note- ~words in these are thoughts~  
A/N2- Taakes place about 6 years after season six, with Dawn as a college sophmore.  
  
"What movie should we watch first?" Dawn asked the group of friends gathered around her in her Boston College dorm room. "Titanic!" the girls screamed. "No," Jeff yelled over them, "We should watch 'The Fast and The Furious' first. You girls will be all sad and crying after Titanic, so we should watch that last." "What About Interview With a Vampire?" Melanie piped up. Dawn involuntarily shuddered.  
She had attempted to get rid of everything that had to do with vampires and the hellmouth ever since she had come to Boston last year for college. Buffy had convinced the Watcher's Council that since she had lived so long, she sould be being paid for slaying, and had saved up all that money to send Dawn to college as far away from SunnyDale as possible.   
Keith, Dawn's best friend, noticed her shuddering, and, although he had no idea why she was acting the way she was, quickly covered for her before anyone noticed. "Let's just watch Titantic," he said turning to the guys,"If we don't, they'll whine through all of Fast and Furious, and we won't be able to devote our full concentration to the hot cars." Everyone laughed as Dawn popped in Titanic.  
  
~~~~  
As people ran through the boat, trying not to drown, Keith leaned over to Dawn. "Wanna go for a walk?" he whispered. She nodded, and the both stood up. "We'll be back in a little while," she told everyone, and they walked out of her room.   
"Where do you wanna go?" she asked. "Oh, just down the street." They walked, just making small talk for a while when Keith brought up the subject they were both dreading. "What was with the flinching when Melanie suggested Interview With a Vampire?" "What flinching?" don't tried to act innocent and cover up the fact that she had just flinched again. "Come on Dawnie, I'm not that dumb" he replied. "I know," she said, "It's just-" "What? Why are you looking past me like that?"   
Dawn was staring at a face that she hadn't seen in 6 years, a face, that along with the body had left, without even saying goodbye. A face whose duster she still had in a box in the back of her closet in her dorm room.   
  
"Spike?" she whispered incredulously. 


	2. The Meeting

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Jos and Mutant Enemy own everything. All movies belong to their respective owners.  
Spoilers: Up through the end of Season 6 on Buffy.   
Rating: PG13 for a few swears.  
Feedback: Please, Pretty Please, with sugar on top?  
  
Author's Note- Takes place about 6 years after season six, with Dawn as a college sophmore.  
  
A/N2 sorry for such a short first chapter. I will try to make this one and the next few longer.  
  
A/N3 sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out. ok, now, on to the story.  
  
Dawn was staring at a face that she hadn't seen in 6 years, a face, that along with the body had left, without even saying goodbye. A face whose duster she still had in a box in the back of her closet in her dorm room.   
  
"Spike?" she whispered incredulously  
~~~  
  
"Bit? Is that you?" William was looking at a beautiful girl, that only slightly looked like the 14 year-old Dawn he had left in Sunnydale.   
"Spi-" he stopped her with his hand. "I don't go by that anymore, it's just William or Will now."  
"William, what happened to you? You just left, without even saying goodbye!"  
"Umm Dawn?" Keith was standing there, looking very confused.  
"Oh, Sorry. Keith, this is Sp- William, an old family friend, Will, this is Keith, my best friend." The two men nodded at each other.  
"Bit, I've got to go," William pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and quickly scrawled some digits on it. "Call me tommorrow and we can figure out a time to meet up so we can talk about stuff"  
"kay" Dawn whispered, completely overwhelmed.  
  
~~~  
  
"Who was that guy? An old boyfriend or something?" Keith tried to figure out what had just happened as they walked down the street back towards Dawn's room.  
"Nah, he was a friend of Buffy's who hung out with me a lot, and then had a fight with her and left without saying goodbye to me."  
"Oh. That really sucks!"  
"Yeah, I know."  
They walked in silence until they reached the elevator in Dawn's building.   
"Keith?"  
"Yeah Dawn?"  
"Could you not tell anyone about what happened tonight? I- I dunno, I just don't want anyone to know about it."  
"Of course Dawnie. I wouldn't tell anyone about this without asking you first."  
"Thanks"  
The elevator ground to a stop at Dawn's floor and they got out. They walked down the hall and opened her door to the sound of laughter.  
"Hey Dawnie, Hey Keith!" the 12 college students lounging all over the dorm room chorused.   
"We were just waiting for you guys to get back before we put The Fast and The Furious on." Melanie explained, pooping the cassette in.  
Dawn settled onto the couch to enjoy a night of college normalcy, and temporarily forgot everything that had happened that night.  
  
~~~  
  
Dawn groggily got out of bed the next morning. She grabbed some orange juice from the fridge and sat down at the table. Melanie was already up, filling a trashbag with pizza boxes, popcorn bags, and other garbage. April came out of her room, in her usual zombie-like mood and went to start the coffee pot.   
After having breakfast, Dawn went back to her room to get dressed. She grabbed the pants she had worn yesterday and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. A crumpled peice of paper came with it. She grabbed it, and as she read the hastily scrawled numbers, she remembered what had happened the night before. ~Spike is here, in Boston!~ She thought, completely excited. She ran to her phone, and started dialing before she remembered something. ~he's probably asleep right now, I'll call around 6 or 7, once it gets dark.~ She hung up the phone and went to her closet. She pulled a pair of jeans and a halter top out, then reached into the bottom to grab a jacket. It wasn't until she picked up her books did she realize that the jacket she had grabbed *just happened* to be Spike's duster.  
  
~~~  
  
"Remember everyone, your papers are due next class. I will not accept them late!" Dawn's Phych professor yelled as the class packed up and left the room.   
"Hey Dawn!" Keith and the rest fo the gang came up behind her. Dawn jumped in suprise. "Wow, twitchy are we?"  
"You just suprised me a little."  
Keith pulled Dawn aside. "Does this 'jumpyness' have anything to do with last night? You're acting just like you did when you first came here, all nervous and shit! Dawnie, what's wrong?"  
"Nothing, I guess I'm just a little shooken up from seeing Sp-William. I haven't seen him in like forever"  
They rejoined the chattering group and continued down the hall. they walked outside, and continued down the street.  
"I love your coat Dawn! It's so retro 80's!" Hallie piped up  
"Thanks!" Dawn replied.  
"Yeah Dawnie, I've never seen you wear that one before? Where'd you get it?" asked Keith inquistively.  
"Oh, I've had it for years, I just never wear it," she replied, waving the subject away.   
"Who's up for dinner?" asked Mike, "It's already 4:45, and the dining hall will get crowded if we wait much longer." the group nodded in agreement.  
"You guys go on, I'm not that hungry. I'm just going to go back to my room and take a nap."  
Keith gave Dawn a look, but she ignored it, and walked away from the crowd, the duster billowing in the wind.  
  
~~~  
  
Dawn got to her dorm, and immediately ran to the phone. She grabbed the crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and dialed the seven digits.  
"'Ello?" The familiiar british voice answered in an exhausted voice.  
"Hey Sp-William, it's Dawn. Did I wake you?"  
"Yeah, but it's ok. I asume that you're calling becasue you wanna talk?"  
Un able to resist, Dawn sarcasticly replied, "No, I'm calling just to say hi. Of course I wanna talk. Where have you been for the last 6 years?"  
"Calm down Nibblet. This is a long story, too long to tell over the phone. Why don't we meet up somewhere?"  
"Okay, but it has to be tonight. I'm going to die of frustration if I don't find out soon!"  
"That's fine. Meet me at the Starbucks on Commonwealth Ave, the one in the bookstore."  
"Ok, I'll be there in like 15 minutes!"  
Dawn hung up the phone and grabbed her purse. She scrawled a note to Melanie and April telling them she went out to meet a friend, and walked out of the dorm.  
  
~~~  
  
William was sitting at a table in the corner when Dawn walked in to the store. She looked around for a minute, recognition flashing in her eyes when she saw him. He waved, and she waved back, coming over to join him.  
"Hey Spi- William!" she said, smiling as she took a seat.  
"Nibblet, you can call me Spike if you want, I'll still answer to it."  
"Ok then, Spike," she replied, "Let's hear the story."  
"There's just one thing I need to tell you first Lil'bit."  
"Lemme guess. You've got this wonderful excuse for never coming to see me, it's that the chip stopped working, and you left because you didn't want to hurt me, but you might have anyway because you're evil, but that can't be true becasue you never hurt Buffy until that last night, and the chip didn't work on her-"  
"She told you about that!" Spike was completely astonished. He thought she would have just shut him out an pretended that nothing ever happened.  
"She told me everything. Now, is that what happened?"  
"Of course not Bit. I wouldn't leave just because the chip stopped working. I left because I was mad at your sister. I didn't come back because there were a few... complications."  
"Complications?"  
"I got my soul back Nibblet." he said this very quietly, almost inaudibly.  
Dawn was, for the first time in her life, completely speechless.  
"you..you..you" she stuttered.  
"Got my soul back." the vampire finished for her.  
"So, what, you're like Angel now?"  
"No!" he said vehemently," I will never be like that ponce." Dawn breathed a sigh of relief.   
"Good. I don't think I could stand a broody Spike." Spike laughed, long and hard.   
"That would be a pretty scary sight1" he admitted.  
"So if you weren't all broody like Angel, then why didn't you come back?"  
"Bit, if I had gone back to the hellmouth, my welcoming present would have been a big stake in the heart, soul or no soul, and you know it."  
"But-"  
"But nothing. What I did was unforgivable, I know that. I have lived with that every day for the last six years."  
"What have you done?"  
"Pardon?"  
"What have you done for the past six years? and why did you leave? spike, I want to know."  
"Ok. Why don't we get coffee first. It's a long story."  
They got their drinks, then sat down. Spike started his story. 


End file.
